


Beyond My Grasp

by LKChoi



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Abandonment, Angst, Bitterness, Love, M/M, Smut, cassimxalibaba, the fog troop, very explicit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 13:02:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19273879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LKChoi/pseuds/LKChoi
Summary: Cassim tries to hold sand within the palm of his hand





	Beyond My Grasp

**Author's Note:**

> I didn’t even mean to get so explicit, but shit happens and it’s powerful as fuck! I apologize ahead of time for any homophobes I scar in the process or fans’ hearts I might break. Please enjoy this angsty mess for what it is and thanks for reading :3

 When the sun melted into the horizon, giving way to the darkness of the night, a thick fog rolled through the streets of Balbadd. Unsuspecting masters of large homes slept comfortably in beds of cotton, covered by the finest silks in rooms where the frigid air coming from the coast could not touch them.

That’s when The Fog Troop would strike.

A woman screamed and children recoiled in the corners of their room as the starving, angry horde looted the wretched lord’s home and gathered what they could.

“Find what you can! Take what you will!” Cassim yelled to the group of bandits.

In the kitchen, Cassim had found the lord of the household hiding beneath a table of fresh fruit. When he tried to escape, he was caught in the grip of Cassim’s household vessel. He begged pathetically under the coil of black binding fog that prevented his movement. He even started crying about being born in luxury, proclaiming that his ignorance was due to his upbringing.

“Please don’t take the jewels,” the scrawny man cried, “they’re all I have. You can even take the children. I bet they’ll fetch you a hefty sum in the slave mark-eck!!!!”

The grip of Cassim’s black fog tightened to a suffocating point, almost enough force to kill him. Cassim glared into his convulsing eyes, gritting his teeth as the veins in his arm throbbed in attempt to hold himself back.

These were the men who trampled on the lives of people who struggled in the slums while his family ate more than one meal each day. They were disgusting and unredeemable, especially sniveling vermin like this man, who was offering his own flesh and blood to secure his own riches.

They all deserved to die.

 _This_ man deserved to die.

Cassim couldn’t sense the black magoi creeping up his body, crawling around his arm that held his metal vessel, and encasing his wrist in a fluttering mass of darkness. They were driving his intention, pushing him to kill the man ruthlessly

If they had a voice, they would echo in his mind in slow, rhythmic chants that sounded like a thousand demonic voices whispering at once:

_Kill…Kill…Kill…_

“Cassim!”

The familiar voice struck him like a bullet through his heart, powerful enough to leave him breathless in the split second of impact. It was only then that he could see the last bit of circulation leaving the man’s face as it started to turn blue. And he didn’t see the fear in the children’s eyes, who were now in the room, bearing witness to this level of cruelty.

Alibaba gripped Cassim’s arm tighter, and he could now feel heat licking at his flesh, Amon’s flame threatening to consume him if he did not let go. Yet it was his eyes that struck him speechless.

Brilliant gold, radiating power and rage beneath the wraps around his head. Like golden fire melting through his skin, seeping into his core, pooling into his spirit and melting the darkness.

The black magoi dispersed, fluttering away and crawling out of an open window, disappearing into the night. The little boy stopped crying when he saw tiny sparks of light magoi flapping around Alibaba. He quietly pointed them out to his sister so that she knew they were now safe.

“That’s enough, Cassim.”

He finally released the man, who fell to the floor, passed out but not dead from lack of oxygen.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Sirens sounded throughout the city as the sound of stampeding soldiers drew near. Some people within the Fog Troop held food and cloth, while the bearers of the household vessels seemed to have found the jewels the lord had mentioned earlier. The soldiers assembled at the gates, blocking their path.

“Turn yourselves in!” they warned. “You’ve got nowhere to go!”

Cassim wasn’t afraid or panicked, nor were the other generals of the Fog Troop. The simply stood their ground as Alibaba calmly walked ahead of them, putting himself as the divide between them and the soldiers.

A strong gust of wind blew through the courtyard, ruffling the wraps about Alibaba’s head and sending waves along the back of his clothes. His sash danced in the wind as he pulled his blade from its sheath. The soldiers grew restless and were about to charge the gates, when suddenly the fog swirled up in a tornado around him, as he said the words:

_My servant of decorum and austerity_

_I command thee and thy sacred brethren_

_Use my magoi now, and lend tremendous power to my will_

_Appear._

_Amon!_

The soldiers gasped as fire engulfed him. With a swing of the dagger, Alibaba blasted through a storage room at the far side of the courtyard, creating enough of a diversion that allowed the Fog Troop to escape.

…

Cassim closed his fist and watched the cold grains of sand slip between his fingers. It had lingered long enough for him to feel the grit against his skin, then, like a snake, slithered from his grasp.

That was his life. A tiny grain of earth to be blown away like countless specs of dirt in the wind. But he was tired of that existence and tired of seeing others like him get lost in the quickly changing political torrent that was consuming Balbadd.

Alibaba’s blonde hair danced in the cool night breeze, free from his headwraps. He was standing beside Cassim, fixed to the idea that he was going to figure out what was wrong with his friend, but Cassim’s focus was on other matters plaguing his mind.

Alibaba was very much like the sand that had slipped through his fingers. Always close enough to reach, but never solid in his convictions enough to stay. Was Cassim going to lose him when it would come the time to destroy in order to rebuild? Could he bare it again, while the chaotic torrent lifts his feet off the ground, throttling him?

Choking him. Consuming him.

“What got into you back there?”

“Nothing.”

A still silence passed between them before Cassim went back inside. Alibaba followed.

“What should we do with all of this?” one subordinate asked him as they passed.

“Whatever.”

Cassim kept walking. He could practically feel Alibaba’s golden eyes burrowing into the back of his skull, as if attempting to read his mind through his dreadlocks. He didn’t want to speak of the moment that was disrupted, but in a strange way liked that it happened because for once, Alibaba was the one pursuing him.

“That was way too close for it to have been nothing.”

They were standing in his room now, the only one that existed in the small enclosure Cassim made his home in the far back of their hideout. A candle was lit beside the low set of worn blankets he called a bed. The light made their shadows move against the hard clay walls.

Cassim sighed and finally turned back to face his old friend and now leader. Gold met gold as Alibaba stood there, unflinching. He clearly wanted answers, but Cassim didn’t want to focus on it. All he wanted was to remain close, before the winds of change blew Alibaba out of his life once again.

He couldn’t describe the feeling he was getting, but something was telling him that if he didn’t hold the blonde close to him now, he’d lose the chance forever.

“I don’t know what it was,” Cassim seemingly confessed, wanting to get it out of the way, “but I feel like something was…possessing me,”

Cassim stepped forward and grabbed Alibaba’s shoulders, flustering the blonde, who easily lost his composure.

“Alibaba, if it weren’t for you, I don’t know what would have happened.”

Of course, this was a lie.

If Alibaba was not there to stop him, Cassim would have choked the very life out of that man. Just as cruel the man had been to one of the slum children, who had so weakly asked for bread in the market earlier that day. He laughed and kicked the child. Apparently, he was too busy greasing government palms to think of the suffering of just one little boy he left crying in the street.

No doubt about it; he’d be dead if it weren’t for Alibaba. Kind Alibaba, the golden boy who would undoubtedly adhere to the plight of his friend in need of counseling.

“I’m afraid Alibaba,” he went on. “seeing so much suffering, starving day and night: it’s driving me crazy.”

Alibaba looked hurt. He knew the struggle of that life growing up in the slums along with Cassim and the others. He wanted to stop it. He didn’t want to see his strong friend lose himself in the madness of it all. Tonight, reaffirmed that he had to keep trying. He was determined to save the people of Balbadd if it was the last thing he ever did.

“I. I’m just glad you didn’t.” Alibaba conceded. “That’s not you Cassim. That’s not us. We’ll take back our country. I promise.”

Cassim smiled and pulled Alibaba close to him.

“I believe you, Alibaba. As long as you’re here, I can believe in anything.”

What he had said to Alibaba wasn’t an entire lie. He was, in fact, going mad the more the taxes rose and the more he found bodies in the street of people who had missed weeks of food and had no access to remedies for their illnesses. He wanted that to change. For now, it was good enough to drown in the sweet promises Alibaba made, until time or fate or whatever cruel universal device tore them apart again. If Alibaba couldn’t, Cassim would sell his soul to do it.

“I’m glad,” smiled Alibaba, “that makes me feel like I-”

Alibaba’s words slipped from his mind when he felt Cassim’s lips against his ear, searching with his tongue for the lobe, then lapping at it before he started to suck.

“What are you doing?”

“Showing my gratitude,” Cassim whispered against his neck. The warmth sent shivers up Alibaba’s spine in a way he had only experienced at the hands of brothel women.

Alibaba’s hands found purchase on Cassim’s hips and he shoved him away in a panic. Cassim stumbled but did not fall. It was barely enough force. He grinned as he watched the blonde touch his ear, his cheeks dusted with blush. For someone who was such a powerful fire wielder, he looked so small in the light of the candle, disoriented from one tiny lick on his ear.

“Did it not feel good?” Cassim asked, knowing the clear answer to the question.

He was toying with him. A selfish part of him simply wanted to hear Alibaba admit it.

“No!” Alibaba yelled. “I mean...”

He was doing it again, that sheepish expression he wore when he didn’t have a clue on how to handle things. It was cute, just as it was an opening.

Cassim stepped to him again, but this time slipped his arms about his waist, allowing room for Alibaba to worm his way out.

But he didn’t.

Alibaba was somewhat lost in his thoughts.

He felt as if he had witnessed Cassim falling off the edge of a cliff, and right in the nick of time, he was there to catch him. Cassim himself admitted that he didn’t know what had come over him in that house, so to

He and Cassim had been close since childhood, but never had he registered that such feelings could arise between them. It was a taboo subject in their country, the intimate love between two men, but this didn’t feel wrong. Just _new_. His mother once told him that love knows love, no matter the form it takes. Was this love? Did Cassim love him?

“Cassim, do you…?”

Alibaba hesitated. It was only one question, but so many more at the same time. It presented a test and left them on the cusp of uncharted territory. Cassim saw the confusion running through Alibaba’s mind, but was already so sure of his own feelings.

Alibaba was the sand. He was ready to slip away the moment the wind blew. But not tonight, not in this tiny space that Cassim called home. He refused to let him slip away.

“Alibaba.”

Cassim felt him shudder at the sound of his own name. That roaring flame he saw emerge from his soul earlier that night seemed like only the exaggerated shadow of the ember now flickering in his arms.

Alibaba allowed himself to be pulled into his arms. Cassim’s dreads tickled against his collarbone, the roughness a stark contrast to his gentle kiss.

Alibaba felt so small against him, thin as he’d always been, but more so against his solid frame. His lips were thin, yet soft like peaches, so fresh and sweet that he wanted to suck the juices right out of them.

Cassim took over the kiss, guiding Alibaba with the turn of his head, the probing of his tongue, and the force in which he coaxed his lips to open. Alibaba slipped his hands over Cassim’s shoulders, curling his fingers into his locks.

_So that’s what they feel like._

Cassim chuckled between kisses, feeling Alibaba experimentally tug at his thick hair. He was also studying, his rough fingers threading silky blonde strands of hair between his fingers. Then his hand wandered down, tracing along Alibaba’s neckline until his fingers touched the thick rope tied around his neck.

Cassim gave it a playful tug, and Alibaba broke their slow kiss with a moan. That was unexpected, but the sound of the blonde’s voice sent a feeling that went straight to his loins.

“Alibaba, I had no idea.” He grinned.

“Ngh.” Alibaba groaned. “Neither did I. “

He gasped when Cassim took a step back and tugged him along by the neck to his bedding setup. Alibaba reached for his neck, holding fast to the rope so that it didn’t choke him, but this feeling coursing through his body didn’t feel like panic or distress.

It was excitement.

Alibaba trusted Cassim with his life. In spite of past betrayal, he retained the faith that his childhood friend never intended to hurt him. So, even now, as Cassim used the red rope to tug him towards his bed, he knew that there was no danger, and it made him anticipate what would come next.

When his feet hit the worn duvets, Cassim pushed him down, and Alibaba fell with a thud. The impact hurt a little, but was soon forgotten when Cassim climbed on top of him and started kissing him again. This time was different. Less chaste, more force, more tongue.

Wetter.

Cassim’s dreads tumbled all around as they started to touch each other, the loose cloth of their dingy rags giving way to skin beneath. Cassim pulled at his sash, which loosened the strap of his dagger, making it tumble beside it. They paused and glanced at it for a moment.

This dagger and the power held within it was going to carve their futures. Neither knew what that would mean, nor did they want to face it in this moment that they surely wouldn’t get again.

“just, sit it on the table.” Alibaba said reluctantly.

It was the first time it left his waist. He didn’t even sleep without it. It made Alibaba feel more vulnerable, but it showed his trust in Cassim even more.

“Are you sure?” Cassim asked, noticing the slight hesitation in Alibaba’s voice.

“Yeah.” He replied after glancing at it for a moment. “I’m sure.”

Cassim got up and carefully sat the weapon down beside the candle on the beat-up shelf. Then, he started to slip out of his own clothes.

Alibaba watched as the light revealed scars, ones that were there since they were children. It pained him knowing what that horrible man did to his friend. Then to know that others were gained when Cassim started running with shady people just to help feed them. It further motivated him to create a world where that wouldn’t happen again.

Alibaba grew nervous as he gazed upon new parts of his friend’s body that he never dreamed he would ever see. The firm grooves between muscle on his abdomen. The deep V-shaped cut of his hip leading downward. And finally, the firm length of his genitals, whose tip glistened with a tiny dribble of cum that was already leaking from it.

Cassim grinned at his surprised expression, feeling proud in all of his nude glory that Alibaba seemed to be admiring.

“Don’t worry. It won’t hurt much. Then again, if this is your first time…’

“Wait, it’s not yours?”

Cassim laughed, unapologetically amused by Alibaba’s innocence. He wasn’t surprised by it. In fact, he suspected as much. They’ve both had women, even exchanged stories about it a number of times over the years: but men were an entirely different story.

Cassim learned about men. How to work them. How to please them. There was a lot of things he did to keep the troop fed before Alibaba joined. Things he would never speak of again.

Cassim reached between the table and his bedding and pulled out a small mason jar, the contents of which Alibaba could not see. He sat it down, then crawled in next to him.

“Do you trust me, Alibaba?”

It was a question that he found himself repeating ever since the betrayal, but somehow convinced himself that even that had a reason. He had to trust Cassim. Their mission was noble. They were fighting the same fight, as they had been since they were kids.

Cassim wouldn’t hurt him. Cassim would protect him. Cassim loved him.

“Of course.” He finally answered.

Cassim smiled and leaned in to kiss him again.

“Then just leave it all to me.”

Just like that, they were at it again, mouths ajar as their tongues twisted together and their breaths heated up the slightly enclosed space where the bed was set up. Alibaba found himself shuddering in ways he never thought possible, making embarrassing noises as Cassim stimulated sensitive spots he never knew he had.

It was different at the brothels, where women were paid to pretend to like you and make quick work of your basic needs. Cassim was eager, but took his time with Alibaba in spite of that. He had returned to the spot at his ear, playing with his earing using his teeth while tugging the rope around his neck. God it felt good, so good that he couldn’t help digging his nails into Cassim’s shoulder. His skin burned wherever he touched, as if Cassim was also imbued with Amon’s flame.

DESCRIBE FEELING CONSUMED

“Fuck!” yelped Alibaba.

Cassim was breathless, struggling to keep still with the tight ring of muscle clenched around the head of his aching cock. It was taking everything in him not to just thrust into Alibaba without abandon.

Cassim prepared him well, one lubricated finger at a time, being careful not to harm him by doing too much too fast. Yet still, Alibaba was shaking like a leaf. The blonde’s eyes were teary and he was gritting his teeth. Cassim dreamed about this moment too many times to count and they reality proved far more satisfying.

Alibaba was pristine, far removed from the filth that he was. He loved that above him. it was that light that kept Cassim’s hope alive in his darkest days as a kid. But the harder his heart became, the more he wanted to stain him. Alibaba claimed that they weren’t so different. In this way, he could at least prove it at was true in the basest human form.

Cassim desperately loved Alibaba, but he wanted to destroy him just as badly; especially right now.

“I told you,” Cassim panted. “It’s not easy, but it’ll feel better soon. You have to relax.”

Alibaba trembled. It felt like he was being torn in two. Cassim’s fingers felt so much better. In spite of their roughness, they were easier to take. After he was over the initial weirdness of having an intrusion in a place he never imagined, he found himself anticipating their entrance, even to the point of begging. He moaned as they pumped in and out of him, so good that it made his back arch off the bed.

But this was massively different. It made him regret his decision slightly, but his skin was sweaty and his heart was pounding and his dick was throbbing, leaking his need onto his stomach. Cassim’s eyes were burrowing into him, impatient and primal, like a beast set to feast on his prey.

“Alibaba,” he groaned. “I’m sorry, but I have to move”

“No. Not yet-ah! “

Cassim slowly breached his entrance and Alibaba immediately punched him in the chest. He took the hit easily, instead focusing on the sensation of wet tightness around cock.

“You goddamn liar!” Alibaba cried out angrily.

Cassim caught his fist the second time and arched over him, pushing further until he was fully sheathed inside. Cassim gasped and rested his forehead against Alibaba’s. Tears spilled from Alibaba’s eyes, but he didn’t fight the force of Cassim holding his wrist. They both panted, creating a pocket of heat between them that matched Cassim’s frustration and Alibaba’s rage.

“Hit me again,” Cassim dared breathlessly, setting Alibaba’s arm onto his shoulder. “Bite me scratch me pull my hair out.”

Slowly he moved forward and Alibaba convulsed, letting out another painful moan, eyes blown wide and his heart hammering in his chest with the intrusion of it all.

“Do your worst Alibaba because I promise that I will do mine.”

With that, he thrusted again and Alibaba quickly wrapped both arms around his shoulders, trembling as Cassim throbbed inside of him. It was painful, as he was warned, but in spite of it his cock ached with want and cum pooled on his stomach, trapped beneath Cassim as he slowly thrusted inside of him.

As he felt the tight ring of muscles give into his advances, Cassim started going faster. Alibaba clawed into his shoulders, but after a while, he wrapped his legs around Cassim’s back. His complaints and cries shifted into moans and Cassim exhaled his name.

This time, he had captured the sand that was Alibaba in an hourglass. Time started, stopped and repeated as he fucked into him with all the frustrations building from years of lone suffering and abandonment.

This was for the days when the sun seemed faded because he couldn’t see Alibaba’s stupid grin. This was for all the times they scavenged for food and remembered how Alibaba would starve himself if he found out Cassim had no luck that day. And this was for all the cold nights he spent freezing because he couldn’t find cloth and Alibaba wasn’t there to share his body heat.

Cassim sucked in a sharp breath when Alibaba gripped a fistful of his dreads and yanked hard with one hand and dragging his nails down his arm with the other. He looked wrecked, his blonde a matted mess glued to his sweaty forehead. His mouth hanging open as he vocalized his pleasure. His eyes shining like gold in the night, filled with tears and blissed out.

“Ca…Cassim.” He, before his arms flew up to cover his face.

Cassim smiled and slowed his pace, reaching down to uncover him.

“Alibaba.”

His own voice sounded as rough as Alibaba looked, but he continued speaking while bringing his hips to a stop. Alibaba allowed his arm to be removed but looked away while catching his breath.

“What are you afraid of?” Cassim asked, lowering his head to the blonde’s exposed neck.

His dreads spilled over his shoulder, itching against Alibaba’s skin as Cassim brought his lips to his ear.

“Are you afraid that you like it?”

Alibaba shuddered when his hot breath hit his skin and gasped when Cassim sucked the lobe into his mouth, then played around with his earing with his tongue. When Cassim stopped teasing and lifted his head, Alibaba finally met his eyes.

“Or are you actually afraid that you love me too?”

Alibaba was quiet for only a moment before he sighed and grabbed Cassim’s face and pulled him down. Cassim trembled when Alibaba kissed him deeply and fervently, only separating in two second intervals to catch a quick breath.

Now he was trapped in the hourglass with him, tossing and turning as the world lost its axis and up was down and down was up. Time stilled and for these precious moments they weren’t even in Balbadd anymore.

They weren’t poor kids from the slums. They weren’t the sons of an abusive drunk and a dead king. They weren’t men fighting for the impoverished left in the streets to starve and rot.

They weren’t mud and sand, bronze and gold, shadow and light.

They were just Cassim and Alibaba.

They were that as Cassim’s hips found a new rhythm and Alibaba’s body flowed with it. They were that when the white heat ignited in their guts, sank to their cocks, and streaked across Alibaba’s chest and filled his hole. And they were that when the rolled onto their backs, breathless and heavy, one hand held in another as they both fell asleep.

Until the light of dawn spilled into the window, pried Cassim’s eyes open, and made Cassim realize that now; it was just him.

Alibaba was not in his bed, nor in his own. He was stolen in the night by that red-haired beast girl and the next time he returned was as an enemy.

They would never be Cassim and Alibaba again and the sands of time would slip through his fingers forever.


End file.
